Reversing-gearing.



J. O. TOW.

REVERSING BEARING. APPucA oN FILED MAY I7. 1916.

1,224,811 2., Patented May 1, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1. 227- z? an D A TTOH/VEY J. 0. TOW.

REVERSING GEARING.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 17. I916- 1,224,81 2. Patented May 1, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- 2 4o 1% j r 4 7 46 W. I H. f 49" J/ WIT/M8858. INVENTOR nnrrn was Parana opinion.

JAMES O. TOW, OF COLUMBIA, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO DORN-CLONEY LAUNDRY AND DRY CLEANING 00., OF COLUMBIA, MISSOURI, A

CORPORATION OF MISSOURI.

BEVERSING- GEARIN G.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 1,1912.

Application filed May 17, 1916. Serial No. 98,039.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES O. Tow, a citizen of the United States, residing at C0- lumbia, in the county of Boone and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Reversing-Gearing, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to reversing gearing, and has for its object to produce means actuated by a single belt, to impart oscillatory movement or alternating revolutions of equal degree to an element or object demanding such motion.

A further object is to produce gearing of the character mentioned, embodying three belt wheels arranged side by side, and means whereby the engagement of a continuously driven belt with the middle or intermediate wheel and either of the side wheels shall operate mechanism to effect the shifting of the belt until it is disengaged from one of the side belt wheels and engaged with the other side belt wheel and yet remain in driving relation with the intermediate or middle belt wheel.

Another object is to produce a single beltactuated reversing gearingof simple, compact, strong and durable construction, which performs its function efficiently and reliably.

More specifically my object is to produce a single belt-actuated reversing gearing par ticularly appropriate for operating laundry washing machines and drying tumblers.

With these general objects in view the invention consists in certain novel and peculiar features of construction and organization of parts as hereinafter described and claimed; and in order that it may be more fully understood reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1, is a fragmentary top plan view of a washing machine equipped with reversing gearing embodying my invention.

Fig. 2, is an enlarged sectional view taken on the line IIII of Fig. 1, and omitting the gear wheel to which power is imparted directly by the reversing gearing.

, Fig. 3, is a section taken on the line III-III of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4, is an enlarged fragmentary section taken on the same line as Fig. 3,'but viewing the gearing from the opposite side.

Fig. 5, is a central vertical section of a slightly modified part of the gearing.

Fig. 6, is a section of the modified form of construction shown by :Fig. 5 on the line VIVI of Fig. 5.

Fig. 7, is a side elevation of the upper part of a double header washing machine, equipped with reversing gearing embodying my invention, the belt shifting mechanism being omitted.

Referring now to the drawings, in which like reference characters indicate corresponding parts, 1 indicates a bracket suitably supported in any suitable manner from the frame work, not shown, of the body 2 of a washing machine or the like, and journaled in said bracket is a shaft 3, and parallel therewith as shown in Figs. 1 to 4; inclusive, is a stub-shaft 4.

Mounted upon shaft 3 is a central belt wheel 5 and a pair of side belt wheels 6 and 7, wheels 5 and 6 being journaled on the shaft and wheel 7 keyed thereon, it being noted that the central or intermediate wheel 5, is wider than the wheels 6 and 7, and that the driving belt 8 corresponds substantially in width with wheel 5, this driving belt being actuated from any suitable source of power such as a countershaft, not shown.

Botatable with wheel 6 is a gear pinion 9 enmeshed with a gear pinion 10 journaled on the stub-shaft l for the purpose of transmitting power from the wheel 6 to a gear pinion 11 rotatable with and in the same direction as pinion 10. Pinion 11 and a similar pinion 12 keyed upon shaft 3 is enmeshed with a power transmitting gear 13 journaled on a stub-shaft 14 of the frame of the washing machine, and said wheel 13 is intergeared with a larger gear wheel 15 secured on the shaft 16 of the element or drum, not shown, to which reversing revolutions are to be im parted.

The central or intermediate belt wheel is provided with a gear pinion 17 enmeshed with a planet gear 18 keyed on one end of a short shaft 19 journaled in the belt wheel 7, and said shaft 19 rigidly carries asecond planet gear 20 enmeshed with a gear wheel 21 rigid with a worm 22 journaled on shaft 3.

The worm 22 is enmeshed with a worm wheel 23 journaled on a shaft 24 carried by a bracket 25 suitably secured in rigid relation to and projecting from bracket 1. The bracket 25 embodies a horizontal U shaped portion 26, and extending slidingly through the arms of said portion is a rod 27 paralleling shaft 3 and at one end overhanging the belt wheels on shaft 3. Mounted upon said rod is an arm 28 provided with a loop 29 through which extends the driving belt 30 shown only in Fig. 2.

Swiveled on rod 27 is a sleeve 31 provided with a weighted handle 32 at one end and with a. projecting arm 33, and when the said sleeve is in inoperative position as hereinafter referred to, the weighted arm rests upon an arm 34 of portion 26 of bracket 25. When it is desired to impart reciprocatory movement to the rod 27, the weighted arm is operated to turn the sleeve until the arm 33 thereof engages the forked arm 35 slidingly mounted on a pair of parellel guide pins 36 secured at their ends to bracket 25, and formed in arm 35 is an elongated slot 37 engaged by a wrist pin 38 projecting from the worm wheel 33. From the foregoing it will be seen that when the worm wheel turns, its wrist pin by alternate engagement with opposite sides of slot 38 slides the forked arm toward and from the belt wheels, and that when the arm 33 of the swiveled sleeve is engaged with the forked arm 35, corresponding movement will be imparted to the slide rod and consequently shift the belt loop arm 28 from the position shown by Fig. 4, to a position in which the arm 28 shall be opposite the space between belt wheels 5 and 7 so that the belt shall alternately drive belt wheels 6 and 7 in the same direction, the central belt wheel 5 being driven continuously in the same direction as the belt never becomes disengaged therefrom.

Figs. 5 and 6 show a modification of the train of gearing between shaft 3 and the belt wheel 6. In said figures, wheel 6 is formed with sprocket wheel 39 in lieu of pinion 9, and said sprocket wheel is connect- I ed by a sprocket chain 40 with a sprocket wheel 41 on stub-shaft 42 corresponding to stub-shaft 4. The gear pinion 11 in the modified construction is formed integral with sprocket wheel 41 and is intergeared with a gear wheel 43 corresponding in function with gear pinion 12 of the construction shown by Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive. Gear wheel 43 is adapted to be enmeshed with the power transmitting gear 13 or its equivalent.

Fig. 7 shows a washing machine. of the double header type as distinguished from the construction previously described. In the double header machine, 2 indicates the body of the machine and the drum shaft, not shown, is equipped with a large gear wheel 44 at each end, and said gear wheels mesh with smaller gear wheels 45 mounted on a suitably journaled shaft 46. Gear wheels 45 also mesh with a pair of gear wheels 47 mounted upon opposite ends of suitably journaled shaft 48, and mounted upon shaft 48 are the three belt wheels 5, 6 and 7 The belt shifting mechanism is omitted from this figure as it corresponds in all material respects to the belt shifter mechanism shown by Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive. Rigid with belt wheel 6 is a sprocket wheel 49 connected by a sprocket chain 50 with a sprocket wheel 51 secured upon shaft 45.

Assuming that the drive belt is engaging the belt wheels 5 and 6, said wheels will be rotated in unison and power will be transmitted through gear wheels 9, 10 and 11 to wheel 13, and thereby impart rotation to the element or object to be rotated. It will also be apparent that the gear wheel 13 will drive the gear wheel 12 on the belt wheel shaft, and thus rotate the latter and belt wheel 7, in the reverse direction to that imparted to wheels 5 and 6 by the belt. As a result of the rotation of wheel 7, its planet gear 18 will roll around upon the sun gear or pinion 17 formed on belt wheel 5, and be simultaneously rotated around its own axis by but at twice the speed of the gear 17. The rotation of the said planet gear of course imparts like rotation to the other planet gear 20, and the latter by turning on its own axis and traveling around gear wheel 21 turns the worm 22 on shaft 3, the rotation of the worm driving the worm wheel 23 and thereby causing the wrist pin 33, of the latter to effect sliding movement of the pin 27 and the consequent shifting of the belt from the wheel 6 until it engages wheel 5 only, the shifting movement continuing until the belt is also engaged with wheel 7. As'this engagement takes place wheel 7 is driven in unison with and in the same direction as wheel 5, and therefore immediately reverses the direction of rotation of shaft 3 and the object being driven. It also immediately reverses the direction of rotation of the worm to start the reverse shifting operation of the belt as the reversal of the rotation of the wheel 13 results in rotating belt wheel 6 in the opposite direction to that imparted to wheels 5 and 7 by the belt, and in this connection it will be under stood that by properly proportioning the parts any desired number of revolutions in each direction alternately can be obtained, and it will also be understood that the length of the movement of the driven object will be exactly the same in both directions. It will be noticed that the rotation of wheels 5 and 7 in unison by the belt effects rotation of the worm 22 at the same speed because the engagement of sun gear 17 with planet gear 18, and planet gear 20 with sun gear 21 is an interlocking engagement and consequently the planet gears do not rotate around their own axes. In the operation of said parts when the belt engages wheels 5 and 6 the planet gears rotate around their own axes as stated, but as their travel with wheel 7 around the shaft 3 is backward or in the reverse direction to the rotation of wheels 5 and 6, the worm 22 is driven at the same speed as the latter. It will thus be seen that the rotation of the worm Wheel 23 is also at the same speed and that the shifting or lateral movement of the belt is effected at the same speed in one direction as in the other.

With the well-known double header drive it is invariable after a short period of service, that one of the belts through slippage or stretching, fails to impart exactly the same length of movement to the driven object as the other belt. Because of this there is a gradual advance or creepage of the driven object in one direction. If the object is a washing machine drum, this advance or creepage is objectionable because the clothes are turned or twisted more in one direction than the other and hence are gradually compacted or twisted upon themselves, this being not only objectionable because the water and suds cannot properly penetrate and thus clean the clothes, but it also takes time for the operator to untwist the clothes and is injurious to them.

Where a singlebelt is employed the twisting of the clothes by movement of the drum in one direction will be exactly counteracted by the movement in the reverse direction, that is to say the twisting and untwisting movement will be exactly the same.

The operation described is the same with a double header, as the belt wheel 6 drives shaft 46 through the sprocket gearing described, to turn the drum shaft wheels 44: in one direction and to drive the shaft 48 inoperatively in the reverse direction. When wheel 7 performs its driving function, gear wheel 47 transmits reverse rotation to the wheels 44 through the wheels 45, and from the latter and the sprocket gearing, the belt wheel 6 is driven inoperatively in the opposite direction to wheels 5 and 7.

From the above description it will be apparent that I have produced a reversing gearing embodying the features of advantage enumerated as desirable, and while I have illustrated and described the preferred embodiment of the invention, it is to be understood that I reserve the right to make all changes properly falling within the prin ciple of construction involved and the spirit and scope of the appended. claims.

I claim:

1. In a reversing gearing, a shaft, a central and" two side wheels thereon, one of the side wheels being fixed to the shaft, a rotatable element driven from the shaft when the central wheel and the fixed side wheel are driven in unison in the same direction, means actuated by said element for driving the other side wheel in the reverse direction orfor reversing the operation of the shaft and fixed side Wheel when the central wheel and the other side wheel are driven in unison in the same direction, a worm journaled on said shaft, means operated by the fixed side wheel and central wheel for imparting an alternating rotary movement to said worm, and a belt shifting mechanism intergeared with said worm and adapted for automatically shifting a belt engaging the central and one of the side wheels from engagement with said side wheel and into engagement with the other side wheel without withdrawing the belt from operative position at any time on said central wheel.

2. In a reversing gearing, a shaft, a central and two side belt wheels upon said shaft, one of the side belt wheels being fixed to the shaft, a rotatable element driven from the shaft when the central wheel and the fixed side wheel are driven in the same direotion, means actuated by the said element for driving the other side wheel in the opposite direction or for reversing the operation of the fixed side wheel when the central wheel and the said other side wheel are driven in unison by said belt, a gear pinion rigid with the central belt wheel, a gear wheel journaled on said shaft, a pair of planet gears rotatable together and carried by the fixed belt wheel, and respectively enmeshed with the said pinion and the said gear wheel journaled on the shaft, and means operated by the last-named gear wheel for shifting a belt engaging the central and one of the side wheels from engagement with the said side wheel and into engagement with the other side wheel without withdrawing the belt from operative position at any time on said central wheel.

In testimony whereof, I affix my signature, in the presence of two witnesses.

JAMES O. TOW.

Witnesses:

ETHEL ROBERTS, WM. H. TAPP.

Games of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

